Friday, September 20, 2013

Both Sides Of The River

The Battle
of Shepherdstown or the Battle of Boteler’s Ford was the end of the Maryland
Campaign and was fought September 19th and 20th 1862.

Confederate
General Robert E Lee’s army of Northern Virginia waited after the Battle of
Antietam for the Union to make another assault, when none came the two armies
pulled together a truce so the wounded could be recovered.Lee began his trip back to Virginia on the
night of September 18th 1862, leaving a rear guard under Brigadier
General William N Pendleton to hold Boteler’s Ford.

In the early
evening of September 19th 1862 Union Brigadier General Charles
Griffin sent the 1st United States Sharpshooters and the 4th
Michigan Infantry to Boteler’s Ford.The
Union men attacked Pendleton’s troops, capturing four cannon before Griffin
recalled them.Pendleton reported the
incident to Lee, reporting that he lost all forty-four of his artillery pieces.

On September
20th 1862 the Union sent a reconnaissance force made up of Major Charles
Lovell’s Brigade of United States Regulars.The Regulars crossed the Potomac entered Shepherdstown, Virginia and
encountered Confederate Major General A P Hill’s division about a mile from the
river.Hill’s men attacked under a heavy
Union artillery fire.Two more Union
brigades were ordered across the river.There was a clash along the heights along the river, which caused the
Union to withdraw from the Virginia side of the river .The day wore on, ending with both the Union
and Confederate troops on either side of the Potomac River in a tactical
stalemate.

Following
this battle Union General George McClellan settle his Army of the Potomac into
a defensive position along the Maryland bank of the river. Casualties for both
sides combined were about 700, of this number 269 casualties were from the
Union 118th Pennsylvania Infantry; the “Corn Exchange Regiment”, for
who this was their first battle.